Wind-rocked tree damages roof of Longmont home

LONGMONT -- High winds ahead of a predicted overnight storm toppled a 40- to 50-foot-tall Ponderosa pine tree onto a Longmont home scaring, but not injuring, those inside.

At about 7 p.m., a worker in a cherry picker started cutting large branches off the tree, but it then became unstable, causing a delay in removing it completely.

Longmont Emergency Unit volunteers were still directing traffic around the area as of 9:20 p.m., as workers were removing large pieces of the tree from the roof and putting them on a flatbed truck.

Longmont firefighter-engineer Bill Johnson said the brick structure of the home on Ninth Avenue probably saved the house when the tree broke at its base under the pressure of the winds and fell from the front yard onto the roof, where it settled.

High winds pushed a tree on to the roof of a house at 1411 Ninth Ave. in Longmont, on Monday evening.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

"If it had been made of wood, it would have likely taken a wall to the floor with it," he said.

Jorge Cordova, 14, said he was in the home with three cousins and a baby.

"All of a sudden we heard a crack," he said, adding that the impact of the tree onto the roof caused pieces of the ceiling to fall.

No one was hurt, but they were scared, he said.

He called his mother and father. Other family members and friends responded to the home.

Johnson said city crews were called out to cut off the portion off the thick tree truck that was hanging past the roof. That would take some of the weight off the house and allow for further removal of the tree, he said.

Winds kept police and firefighters busy through the afternoon and into the evening.

Residents reported a cracked and falling power pole near Airport Road and Ninth Avenue prior to the wind felling the tree onto 1411 Ninth Ave.

A brush fire near Lagerman Reservoir prompted a broad response from firefighters because of the danger high winds pose to spreading flames quickly. The fire was controlled quickly on Monday evening.

Times-Call photographer Matthew Jonas contributed to this story. Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 or at pshields@times-call.com.

Jorge Cordova surveys the damage to his house at 1411 Ninth Ave. in Longmont after the high winds pushed a tree on to the roof at about 5:18 p.m. Monday.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

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